I'm Genuinely Concerned

I've worked in tech for close to 10 years and have been following AI and machine learning for that entire time. I'm computer science educated and I can code. I'm not one of those people who is religiously against AI, but I do have concerns.<br><br>I've worked with many brilliant people and have always believed that if anyone could solve some of the world's problems (especially as they relate to AI), it was them. I'm starting to lose faith in humanity though. Every day I see stories about AI, its amazing advancements, and how it's going to change everything. Little to none of that has happened. I know that AI is still in its infancy and has not come close to its full potential, but I don't see anyone working on solving some of the gigantic ethical problems that AI poses.<br><br>I've seen so many AI startups pop up in the last year based on the ideas of 5-10 years ago. Some of them are genuinely cool, but I've yet to see an AI company actually addressing any of the real problems. They're just looking to make money as fast as possible without any regard for the implications.<br><br>A lot of brilliant AI researchers left their corporate jobs to do "good for humanity" AI research, and I feel like I've seen very few of them talk about the problems that AI will cause. I understand a lot of them might be working on it, but I don't hear them talk about it at all. I feel like a lot of that research just uses a lot of buzz words like "democratizing AI," "making AI usable for everyone," and "AI for good." That all sounds great, but I still don't hear anyone talking about the problems that AI might cause.<br><br>I don't see anyone talking about AI at a governmental level either. That honestly might be the most concerning part. Everything is reactive and not proactive. I don't really hear any world leaders talking about how we should handle AI. They seem to just be talking about how AI is going to make everything better and bring about untold riches, without talking about the problems it's going to introduce. I don't see a "moonshot" level program to advance AI while also solving its enormity of problems. I'm not saying that those projects don't exist, I just don't hear about them.<br><br>I'm just really concerned that no one is looking out for the common man. That everyone is working towards profits and glory without considering the implications of AI. I don't want to be doomy, but I feel like I'm hearing alarm bells ringing in my ears and not a lot of people are responding to them. I'm just worried that we're going to introduce amazing technologies to humanity, but in doing so, we're also introducing gigantic problems that we aren't prepared for.<br><br>I'm just really fucking concerned that we're not being proactive enough in regard to AI, and we're just trying to introduce it as fast as possible. I'm scared that we aren't talking enough about the problems that AI will cause, and what we're going to do about it. I don't hear enough discussion about how we're going to mitigate these problems when they do arise. I just don't see anyone being proactive about making sure that as we roll out AI, we also roll out ways to make sure that it does more good than it does harm.<br><br>This doesn't feel right to me.